elm7,I'm saying that China has (courtesy of its reserves) and...

elm7,

I'm saying that China has (courtesy of its reserves) and has had (via its trade surplus) more powerful reasons to reject bilateral arrangements which exclude dealings in $US. It has most certainly been in their national interest not to offend the USA. So, any criticism has been politely phrased and they have not done anything to upset the $US applecart.

Much of the anti-USA rhetoric from the Latin Americans is for local, political purposes, because that kind of thing plays well to the local audience and distracts attention from your own corruption and incompetence. At the same time, with the exception of the Venezuela, for all of the anti-US talk, they usually stay on the right side of the line.

In the overall scheme of things, Brazil (at 10th largest economy in the world) is the largest player in South America and hardly a threat to the US hegemony. China (at No.3), however, is an entirely different kettle of fish.